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Japan’s economy in trouble

Japan’s 4Q GDP revision confirms deep recessionJapan’s economy shrank a bit less than first estimated in the fourth quarter, but the revised government data Thursday is hardly good news, serving only to underscore the increasingly grim picture for the world’s second-largest economy. Export demand has collapsed, corporate profits are swerving into losses, and job losses are accelerating nationwide amid Japan’s steepest slump since the end of World War II. Analysts say the current downturn — and the response of Japanese companies to it — have combined into a new kind of recession, that’s swifter and deeper than ever before. “The Japanese economy was simply collapsing and nose-diving toward the end of last year,” said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.